在猫眼星云的中心
(原标题: In the Center of the Cat's Eye Nebula)
2022-07-10
浏览次数: 62
三千光年外，一颗垂死的恒星抛出发光的气体壳。这张来自哈勃太空望远镜的图像揭示了猫眼星云（NGC 6543），它是已知最复杂的行星状星云之一。横跨半光年，在猫眼中看到的特征是如此复杂，以至于天文学家怀疑明亮的中心物体实际上可能是一个双星系统。行星状星云这个术语，用来描述这类天体，是有误导性的。虽然这些天体在小型望远镜中看起来可能是圆形的，像行星一样，但用大型望远镜拍摄的高分辨率图像显示，它们是恒星演化后期被气体茧包围的恒星。凝视着这只猫眼，天文学家很可能看到的不仅仅是详细的结构，他们可能看到的是我们太阳的命运，注定要进入它自己的行星状星云进化阶段……大约50亿年后。
查看原文解释
Three thousand light-years away, a dying star throws off shells of glowing gas. This image from the Hubble Space Telescope reveals the Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543), to be one of the most complex planetary nebulae known. Spanning half a light-year, the features seen in the Cat's Eye are so complex that astronomers suspect the bright central object may actually be a binary star system. The term planetary nebula, used to describe this general class of objects, is misleading. Although these objects may appear round and planet-like in small telescopes, high resolution images with large telescopes reveal them to be stars surrounded by cocoons of gas blown off in the late stages of stellar evolution. Gazing into this Cat's Eye, astronomers may well be seeing more than detailed structure, they may be seeing the fate of our Sun, destined to enter its own planetary nebula phase of evolution ... in about 5 billion years.
© Raul Villaverde